Uganda: The Dark Horse

We said 'good-bye' to a very clean non-English-speaking Rwanda and 'hello' to a very chaotic English-speaking Uganda. We weren't complaining. We headed to Lake Bunyonyi just a couple of km's from the border and booked ourselves in at Bunyonyi Overlander's Resort, the only place that could accommodate roof-top tent campers. We were very happy to be back in our camping mode, cooking our own food and spreading ourselves out around Michael. The first day there we did a major spring clean; had laundry done, swept out the floors, seats and tent of dust, mud, etc. The rest of our time there was spent chilling and enjoying the views of the Lake and the cultivated hills surrounding us.

On our way out of Lake Bunyonyi, heading towards Queen Elizabeth Park, we met up with Steve D and his travel companions for breakfast. It was so cool to see a familiar face and catch-up on travel-news, life and all things meaningful :-)

After that, we did some much-needed shopping in the market and then hit the road!

Our plan had been to spend the night just outside of the Queen Elizabeth National Park and then drive through the park on the main road the next day (the no-pay option). But when we arrived at the Kingfisher Lodge overlooking expansive African plains we couldn't resist and decided then and there that we would drive into the park and camp there the next night. We are so glad we made that decision- the park itself and the views across picture-perfect Africa were phenomenal and we spent the day soaking up the views and the realisation of where we were. After a night filled with hippo grunts, hyeana cackles and lion roars, we drove towards the Rwenzori Mountains National Park. En route we crossed another imaginary line that holds some sort of appeal. The Equator!

We popped into a quaint little town called Kilembe surrounded by huge cloud-covered mountains and had a cup of coffee at the backpackers. We met another South African couple there and had a good chat before we decided to drive on to our destination a little deeper into the Rwenzori mountains, the Ruboni Community Campsite. What a gem! This spot is divided into the Lower and the Upper camps, the lower for roof-top tent campers and the Upper camp for ground tents and anyone staying in their bandas. We were blown away by this place and it lists as one of our highlights of the trip so far. It was truly community-run and we were treated with such friendliness and hospitality. Here we decided to try our first Rolex, a Ugandan speciality comprising a chapatti and omelette rolled up together- delicious! After lunch Grant worked on the car and managed to get rid of two nasty sounding rattles! We then decided to go up to the Upper camp and have a drink there. The views from up there were amazing! We had an emergency planning meeting and promptly booked ourselves a guided hike up one of the foothills the following day as well as accommodation in one of the Upper Camps bandas for the next night.

This little spot doesn't get much business and we really can't recommend it enough. The food was so delicious and cheap, we got an authentic community feel and left feeling that we had truly experienced the beauty and character of the Rwenzori mountains and it's people.

We left much fattened after many Rolexes and headed across the country to Entebbe: home of the Shoe-bill Stork. (First we had to negotiate a bit of Kampala's peak hour traffic. Johannesberg has nothing on it. It was hectic, three lanes were created that would usually only accomodate one and offensive driving takes on a completely different meaning.)

We set-up camp in the garden of Entebbe Backpackers and made a quick phonecall to a bird guide and arranged to be picked up at 6:30 the following morning to be taken to the Mabamba Swamp, a 90 minute drive from Entebbe. After driving through many dusty villages, we arrived at a narrow piece of shore with a few simple fishing boats, a couple of boda-bodas (motorbikes) and some fishermen. Feeling like we were part of an Entebbe underground secret, we were piled into a fishing boat and glided into a maze of narrow waterways walled by green reeds. After an hour our guide told us to stand-up and look a couple of hundred metres ahead at a purplish blob- the Shoe-bill! We headed deeper into the lily-covered waters and after another hour we were close enough to get a really good sighting of this funny cartoon-like bird! Amazing!

(Grant: "Tracking" a Shoe-Bill Stork was one of the many things I wanted to do during our trip. For a birder it is one of the most sought after species. Gliding through the reeds in search of this pre-historic looking bird was awesome. )

A Rolex in-the-making! Ush500 a pop=R1.50!

We arrived back to Entebbe just after lunch time and decided to stay on another night here in Entebbe and catch-up on blogging, emailing etc. (This evening we spoilt ourselves with a pizza getting to the restuarant on the local means of transport, a Boda-boda (motorbike taxi). So Ang and I squashed onto the seat (3 on a bike is nothing, we have witnessed 4) and paid only USh 3000 (R9) for a rollercoaster ride through Entebbe. Very cool.)

 Tomorrow we head to Jinga to hopefully do some whitewater rafting!

P.S. We have heard that some of you can't see the pictures as they are too big. Let us know if you are having this problem too and we will make a plan.

Tanzania Part 1: How the west was won and where it got us.

During our planning for the trip in Joburg we never really thought about how we would cross Tanzania to get to Rwanda and Uganda, however, we were faced with this decision before leaving Malawi. There were three options open to us. 1. to do the eastern route, but, we would be doing this on the way down to Mozambique. 2. The central route, which had little to offer in terms of sights or 3. The western route - the less travelled route, but, authentic Africa.

We had heard a lot of good things about option route, so we chose that one and this is how it went.

We crossed over from Malawi into Tanzania. We are getting more experienced with the crossings and are now politely declining assistance from the very enthusiastic runners. Malawi had been good to us, but, it was time to leave and continue our northward journey.

50 km into Tanzania we stopped in Tukuyu at the community run Bongo Campsite. The campsite was very basic, but, brilliant as it was nestled in amongst a small village and you really felt part of the community as various people contributed to the existence and running of the campsite. It was incredibly cheap and now holds the record for the cheapest camping for us at Tsh 6000 per person which is roughly R20. We also had a Swahili lesson from some of the locals and were taught some of the basics that would help us get by at the market and when asking for directions. The next morning involved a shop-off at Mbeya. Ang plundered the local market and got all sorts of fresh veggies and fruit. We were in for surprise when trying to find bread though. Tanzanians are not big on bread or supermarkets and our shop-off was not as successful as planned. We turned westwards and started what would be an epic day of travel.

The tar road stopped at Tunduma on the border with Zambia and this is where the "fun" started. The first obstacle was finding the road that would lead us north along Lake Tanganiyka. There were so many trucks waiting to cross the border that they had parked in every available space which included the road we were to take. After using our newly acquired Swahilli and asking for directions to the correct road, we navigated through the narrow alleyways created by the trucks and finally hit the very narrow and bumpy road we would travel on and off for the next 9 days. It was going to be tough-going.

The west of Tanzania contrasts with the east in that it is totally not set up for tourists, which, has it's pros and cons. Amongst the pros is the fact that you get to experience Africa as it really is. No curio sellers and tour operators. No fellow-overlanders and flashy resorts to accommodate those "on safari". The cons included very bad roads, loads of trucks and huge distances between towns that could possibly accommodate you for the night.

The main road north is all dirt road in various states of disrepair. I don't want to bore you with the details of it's state but it officially holds the distinguished title of Worst Road Of The Trip So Far. There are, however, efforts to improve the roads and we passed many contractors en route. The problem was that they had just started and in places had made the road worse than before. Oh yes and then there is the small matter of the wet season. It is basically called that because....well...it is very very wet. The wet makes mud and the mud makes it slippery. At times I felt like i was doing a rendition of swan lake on ice as i gracefully glided across the road totally out of control. We had, in fact, learnt of a Swiss couple that had rolled their Landy on the same road only a three days prior due to the very slippery surface. It also made passing trucks rather intersting and if you passed them as they were coming down a hill, all the better. The road being so narrow could not accommodate two vehicles side by side and the bigger vehicle, the truck, won the right to the middle of the road. I would pull over into the very sticky mud and watch as the fully loaded truck skidded, rather than rolled, down the road sometimes coming very close to us.

As the light began to fade we were faced with the decision of whether to bush-camp or push on to the nearest town. After three months it has now been proven that I am not very brave at all and Ang is certainly the more adventurous one and so I was not keen on the idea of camping on the side of the road. We chatted about it for a while and even Ang was waivering with her enthusiasm, so together we decided to head to Sumbawanga and try find accomodation there. In so doing we broke one of our rules: never travel at night in Africa. We arrived at 19:45 and were greeted by a main street full of cars, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians and livestock all vying for a space on the road. The lack of street lights and a map of the town made the task of finding a place for the night a little more difficult, but, we were up to the task. We saw a glimmer of hope in a small sign advertising the Mbezi Forest Hotel. After winding through narrow streets filled with small, but, lively pubs and restuarants, we came to the hotel. Using our newly aquired swahilli phrases we asked if we could pitch our tent in the parking lot and use one of the rooms bathrooms. They obliged and we set up camp in front of the hotel, way passed feeling embarrased about it. So after 500 km and 14 hours of driving we slept like the dead.

The next day we woke up and claimed our free breakfast before making our way to the lakeside village of Kipili. It was a short 3 hour drive and the sight that greeted us was almost too good to be true. The blue waters of the lake and in the distance the ominous mountains of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Then there was the Lakeshore Lodge. It was like paradise with a lounge/bar right on the beach and individual campsites with clean ablusions and hot water. We were in heaven. It was decided that we would chill here for a bit and soak up the sun on the cleanest lake in Africa. We spent our first day there doing nothing but reading on the beach occasionally looking up to take in the spectacular view and remind ourselves that we were actually on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, a lake we had learnt about in geography classes but never dreamt of ever visiting.

The following day we took Kayaks to the nearby Mvuna Island to get a glimpse of the chiclids that flourish in the lake. We docked the Kayak amongst huge white boulders and the water was so clear that you could see the fish swimming just below the surface. We quickly got our snorkelling gear on and escaped into the underwater world of thousands of different couloured fish. We circled the rocky island pointing out new fish to one another. it was awesome. while sunning ourselves on one of the rocks a few kids from a nearby island village came to inpect the Mzungus and we had a great time playing and swimming with them. After the strenuous Kayak we relaxed in the lounge watching the sun slide behind the blue mountains of the DRC, while sipping on a cold Kilimanjaro. Was the less travelled western route delivering? For sure!.

It was therefore with heavy hearts that we left Lakeshore Lodge, promising that we would bring family and friends back (and we mean it). We knew that we had more rough roads and long hours in the saddle ahead of us in order to reach Katavi. It had rained heavily and the road was a series of mud pools all competing for the honour of being the biggest and deepest. Progress was slow and frustrating and we rumbled into the Riverside Campsite very relieved to have put that stretch of road behind us. The campsite was right next to a river which a number of hippos called home and we were able to get really close and take some cool pics. We also met a fellow south Africa, Willem, on his way back from the UK in his Land Cruiser. We soon got chatting around the campfire and much of the conversation revolved around South Africa and how much we love it.

We were up really early the next day, packed the tent up and left for another 350km of muddy bumpy roads en route to Kigoma on the Northern shores of the lake. The roads did not dissapoint and we were soon adding more layers of mud to the already very dirty Michael. 9 hrs later (yes that is an average of 36 km an hour) we found ourselves in Kigoma. A bustling town filled with shops selling all sorts of things (A: we arrived completely famished having eaten one solitary packet of salted peanuts between the two of us the entire day. As G mentioned, bread really is hard to find. We had read in the Lonely Planet that there was a bakery in Kigoma and as we pulled into town we headed straight there. I emerged with two loaves of freshly baked bread and, wait for it...... a jar of nutella!!! Needless to say i spent the next few days in a sugar-overdosed daze). We found a campsite 5km out of town, an awesome spot with our own private beach and no one else around. On one of the days we walked down to the main road, feeling a little like the Pied Piper as local kids followed us chanting the now very predictable "Mzungu, Mzungu". At the main road we waited for a Dala-Dala (Taxi) to take us into town. Our first bit of business was to find the market, which we soon located and then explored it's many alleys. There were different sections, one selling cloths and fabric, then one for clothing, another for fruit and vegetables and for meat. It was a real experience and after stocking up with eggs and veg we headed to the reputable Sun City Restuarant on the main road. Here, in broken Swahilli, we ordered Omeletti and Mandazzi, omlettes and a dumpling/vetkoek sort of thing (the safe option really). After a good few hours exploring Kigoma we made our way to the taxi rank and caught a dala-dala back to our campsite. A good day out.

We left Kigoma at 5:30 in the morning, as we planned to cross into Rwanda and had a few hundred kms to do (A: This time we were more prepared- we had a packed lunch of boiled eggs, Nutella sandwiches, tuna-mayo sandwiches and a packet of beef viennas which stated of the packet Soseji Poa! Poa means Cool and you know what Soseji means :-)). The road (yes i know, I am pretty predictable) was actually quite good and proof of this was the fact that we were continuously being overtaken by buses that resembled giant christmas tress, they had so many bright lights. We completed the 300 km of dirt road sooner than we expected and were greated with the amazing sight of tar road snaking through the hills to the Rwandan border. We crossed the border with little fuss and decided to head straight for the Rwandan Capital of Kigali as this is were many of the sights were that we wanted to see before crossing into Uganda. Kigali has a totally different feel from the other capitals we have visited. It is very clean, there is loads of construction taking place and generally is is hard (almost impossible) to imagine that this was the site of one of the most horrendous crimes against humanity the world has ever witnessed. We plan to visit the Genocide memorial and one of the churches in which some of the massecres occured.

Things Grant has learnt:
1. Travelling the roads of Tanzania is the equivelant to going 12 rounds with Mike Tyson. Sore head, Kidneys and back.
2. I am a Mzungu and if I perhaps forgot it in Tanzania I would promptly be reminded of the fact.
3. A GPS is your friend or at least it would be if you had one. It has the ability to save marriages as well as get you to your desired destination. (We decided not to travel with one of these marvelous inventions of the 21st century and are slowly paying the price).

Things Ange has learnt:
1. The hooter was invented for use in Africa. We have joined this group of hooting tooting drivers and its great. Hoot at pedestrians, goats, chickens, cyclists, other cars, truck drivers.. Hoot when you're happy, when you're angry and sometimes, just for fun. Mark and Kieren- the fun horn you gave us has proved an excellent response to the "Mzungu!" screamed at us! Thanks!
2. Mandaazi are delicious. Sure, they most likely have sent our cholesterol levels soaring, but they really hit the bread-deprived spot.
3. I admit it... a GPS would have been a good idea. i have paid and continue to pay dearly for my desire for 'romantic', paper-mapped-based-African-travel.

A big fat CONGRATULATIONS to Lee and Kirst on tying the knot on the 19th March- so sad we had to miss your special day! And to Kirsty and Chris on their marriage on the 2nd April in England!! Also, really sorry to have missed it! CONGRATS!

And then to our Shaz and Jaz on getting engaged on the 28th March!! Wooohoooo!! we are so excited for you guys!!